1. Women and Reform Chapter 8, Section 3
What were the early roots of the women’s rights movement?
HW: pp , & 17.2

2. Women’s Roles in the mid-1800’s
“Cult of domesticity” = idea that after marriage women should restrict their activities to the home and family (have babies stay at home).
Single women were restricted to jobs such as teacher, servant, or seamstress
By 1850, 1 in 5 women worked outside the home, but were paid only ½ as much as men
No vote or jury service, their property and money became their husbands

3. Women’s Changing Roles Women’s roles begin to change during the mid 1800’s. Why?
Industrialization brings women into the workforce
Women experience more freedom, esp. on frontier
WOMEN BEGIN TO BREAK BARRIERS:
Lucretia Mott, Quaker, Abolitionist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organizer for women’s rights
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, first MD
As women spent less time inside the home birthrate declined and health improved

4. Education for Women
The Grimke sisters led the way not only in abolition, but also education for women.
1821: Emma Willard founds one of the nation’s first schools for girls in Troy, NY.
1834: Prudence Crandall, a Quaker, attempts to create a desegregated school for African-American girls in Connecticut – the town forces it to close.
1837: Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

5. Temperance Movement
Excessive use of alcohol was widespread in the 1800’s.
Women led the early movements to limit or ban the use of alcohol by founding temperance societies.
Mary C. Vaughan was one of the leaders of this movement.
The first prohibition of alcohol was passed by the state of Maine in 1851.

6. Angelina Grimké - Abolitionist
Born in the south to a prominent slaveholding family, Angelina Grimké moved to the north to distance herself from an institution she hated. She toured the northeast, speaking first to groups of women and then to large mixed audiences. She capped her tour by becoming the first woman to address the Massachusetts state legislature. Her courage won new respect both for abolitionists and for women. (Library of Congress)
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7. Women and Health Reform
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, MD was nations first female doctor
Catherine Beecher: Conducted a study of women’s health in the 1850’s. Discovered that ¾ of women were ill due to poor hygiene, lack of exercise, and corsets/clothing fashions.
Amelia Bloomer: attempted reforms of women’s clothing, invented “Bloomers,” or pants for women.

8. WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Women are inspired by the reform movements arising from the 2nd Great Awakening
Seneca Falls Convention “Declaration of Sentiments,” Seneca Falls, NY, “all men and women are created equal,” (Mott and Stanton)
Sojourner Truth – African-American female abolitionist, challenged prejudice against women and African-Americans. Famous for her “Ain’t I a woman?” speech.

9. WOMEN BECOME INVOLVED IN THE TASK OF REFORM
WOMEN’S TRADITIONAL ROLES:
Women Seek Equality
Ex. 1
Ex. 2
Ex. 3

10. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and sons, 1848
Elizabeth Cady Stanton posed in 1848 with two of her sons, Henry Jr., left, and Neil. Stanton, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention, traveled widely and agitated for women's equality while raising five children. (Collection of Rhoda Jenkins)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

11. Seneca Falls Declaration – 1848 (abridged)
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness….
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation--in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

13. Sojourner Truth Abolitionist & Reformer

14. Temperance pledge
Temperance pledge
Pressured by his determined wife and pleading child, this reluctant tippler is about to submit to "moral suasion" and sign the pledge to abstain from alcohol. (Library of Congress)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

15. WOMEN BECOME INVOLVED IN THE TASK OF REFORM
WOMEN’S TRADITIONAL ROLES:
Temp
Ed. for women
Womens Health reform
Women Seek Equality
Ex. 1
Ex. 2
Ex. 3